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Icons
Icons are self-sacrificing to the extreme. Where soldiers are willing to risk their lives and face death for their country or their family or their beliefs, Icons dwell between life and death, where everything they do is for a world that they chose to no longer be a part of. Nickname: Idols Narot: Icons gravitate towards the Immortals and Aegis; the combination of civic duty and spotlight seems to attract them. Enigma also seems to see their share of spiritual or aesthetic minded athletes. Few Icons pop up in The Arm or The Shadowmen. Appearance: Icons tend to come in two forms: the dazzling socialite and the exhausted, but dutiful public official. Regardless of their decorations all Icons do what they do for the public. Their adoring fans, the innocent, the faceless masses; they need to be needed. Safe Houses: ' Icons seem to come from two different walks of life that come with two equally different opinions on housing. From the dank, depressing apartment with the noisy immigrant neighbors to the ‘crib’ with an indoor swimming pool shaped like the Nanon situated in the middle of the living room bustling with ‘hos and bitches’ the Icon likes his ‘me’ time. Size matters, but only when they think that filling the place with ''stuff will make themselves feel less empty. There may be room for their entourage, but there must be room for themself. As long as there is room to drown out the world, or at least the Romanians next door, with the nightly news, there is room enough for the Icon. Icons lead exhausting lives; their obligations to the community can take them nearly anywhere. Icons tend to have safe houses all over the city. This isn’t really an intentional act. A semi-comfortable chair in the office, an unrequited love interest with a spare bed, an ex-wife’s free couch; the Location that the Icon calls home for a night will vary with his duty. Security often goes neglected. Self-sacrificing nature aside, the Icon simply does not spend so much time at home to concern himself with such things. An Icon that has found some toes to step on will find that his various tiny sanctuaries from the world have become the targets of his powerful enemies at which point he becomes the only security they need. 'Background: ' Most Icons are athletes or civil servants. Their common denominator is their devotion to the public, or in some cases, their public. Social workers, police officers, firemen, sports stars. Icons share some common ground with Soldiers, but the two are from different worlds. Both will champion a cause, stand up and be a hero, but the Icon is more likely to stand alone. This has little to do with the merit of the cause, but with the fact that the Icon seems to stand just a little bit taller, a little bit larger than life. Next to the Icon, all others tend to fade to the background. Deadbeat parents, a divorce, dead partner(s); tragedy seems to follow the Icon, at least before becoming a Nanon. Whether it does now depends on if the cyborg learns from the mistakes he made in life; and what he decides to call mistakes. 'Character Creation: ' Icons benefit from Social and Mental Attributes just as much as they benefit from Physical Attributes. The significance of an Icon is not his performance on the field, but his presence on the field. Icons are specialists in their field. They are not just a baseball player, they are Rick 'Wild Thing' Vaughn. They are not just another FBI agent, they are Fox Mulder. They are not just some amateur sleuth, they are Sherlock Holmes. While it may seem like min-maxing, Icons are dedicated to a way of life and they have a specific set of skills that make that way of life work, at least for them. Icons are like living mascots; demigods that walk among us. Like a modern, romanticized, Hercules, they labor with their flaws and leave their mark on the world. Consider taking some flaws at character creation. Addictions are a good start as even if you are not familiar with the impact that drugs and alcohol can have on the life of the addict or lives of those around them there are plenty of sources of information on the internet that can help you research the role. '''Favored Attributes: '''Strength or Presence '''Zhizn’ Applications: Clocking, Analog, Stochastia Weakness: An Icon that casts no shadow has no soul. Icons feed off their fame; their fan’s support is their life-support. An Icon that has no purpose: no game to win, no service to render, is a dying and tarnished idol. Any Icon that fails to have a duty to fulfill is unable to recover lost Willpower by any means other than supernatural. Indulging in a Vice provides the Icon with nothing but a sense of shame, further compelling him to seek purpose… just as soon as he is done wallowing in his own self-pity. Only by re-affirming his purpose, by taking a course of action that is an expression of his Virtue, can the Icon begin regaining Willpower. See “Virtues and Vices” on p. 100 of the World of Darkness Rulebook. Icons also have a hard time maintaining relationships; their duties take up so much of their time and attention that their friendships tend to come in a distant second to work. This kind of life makes for a lot of burned bridges. Most relationships last as long as they do, not because of the effort of the Icon, but because of the admiration of the other half; in fact, that is how many get started in the first place. The Icon isn’t necessarily oblivious to this, but he can not in good conscious turn his back on his duties to indulge in happiness. It is the supreme irony of the Icon that he struggles to provide others with the opportunities to have the very thing he turns his back on. Organization: '''Icons are organized just as they are in life, by sports. For a Nanon Icon the ideological differences of Narots are inconsequential. An Icon from The Arm and an Icon from Aegis view each other the same way that a footballer player views a baseball player. The competitive hierarchy does not seem to crop up until they encounter another Icon from their Narot at which time they begin to jockey for position, subtly at first but eventually progressing into more extreme plays for dominance. Zhizn’ Status means little to Icons unless they are members of the same Narot. The two will then seek to improve their standing with both their Narot and the Icons at large. While it is possible for two Icons of the same Narot to operate within the same Cell, it is unlikely that the two will stay together long before their chauvinism and stubbornness begins to negatively impact the Cell as a whole. In time, one will sacrifice himself for the greater good, and leave. '''Combinations: The Arm – Molly “Razorgirl”; Aegis – Inspector Gadget; Immortals – Bo Jackson, Oscar Pistorius; The Shadowmen – Yakuzza assassin (Johnny Mnemonic); Enigma – Luke Skywalker Concepts: The super cop, the team carrier, self-appointed team captain, downtrodden detective, super mom.